Tatas’ e-commerce platform CliQ to go live on May 27

Tata Unistore, a Tata group business venture, has announced its e-commerce platform, Tata CLiQ, to open to consumers from May 27 across its website, mobile site and mobile apps.

Tata CLiQ will offer consumers a new shopping experience in apparel, electronics and footwear categories

According to report in PTI: At the launch, Tata CLiQ will offer consumers a new shopping experience in apparel, electronics and footwear categories. Over the next few months, the plan is to expand the offering by adding many more categories, brands and exciting features, Tata Unistore said in a statement.

“Clique and Click came together to form the perfect name for our platform, which curates authentic and exclusive products for customers with impeccable taste. A name that says shopping online is now so easy and trustworthy, that all it takes is a click. The ‘Q’ in the logo represents a magnifying glass – a visual representation of the brand’s focus on curating only the best brands and products,” said Chief Executive Officer, Tata CliQ, Ashutosh Pandey.

Over the past few years, e-commerce in India has been growing at a faster rate than brick-and-mortar retail.

According to a Goldman Sachs report released last year, the e-commerce market will account for 2.5 per cent of India’s gross domestic product by 2030, growing 15 times and reaching $300 billion. The current size of e-commerce is $20 billion.

Tata Unistore will be hybrid online retailing venture. It will be a combination of a portal that will list brands and handle payment transactions and brick-and-mortar stores that will set prices, deliver products and provide customer support. The marketplace will integrate the online experience with Omnichannel support at brick-and-mortar stores.

The salt-to-steel conglomerate with combined sales of $108.78 billion has a presence in the retail segment through its arms Trent, which operates the Westside and Landmark chain of lifestyle stores, and Infiniti Retail, which operates the Croma chain of multi-brand electronics stores. In addition, the group also owns the Titan watch brand and jewellery company Tanishq.

The Tata Group’s entry follows online forays by several established conglomerates. Last week, Arvind Ltd launched its omni-channel platform NNNow.com.

With its e-commerce foray, the Tata group has taken a lead over Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh D Ambani-promoted Reliance Retails’s entry into this space. While Reliance Retail launched its fashion and lifestyle e-commerce business portal www.ajio.com just last month, the company has not finalised on launching its e-marketplace yet. In January this year, RIL had said that its other 2.0 initiative encompassing development of marketplace platform was on track and will be rolled out in a phased manner.